TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

ISSUE

What does existing research say about the teachers unions influence, both positive and negative, on human resources and how that influence impacts students’ performance?
This research is significant because the public school system in the United States as a whole is atrociously underperforming and has been for many years. Most inner city public schools and those public schools that serve the poorer community are outright failing. Some states, such as California, have a parent strike law, which allows the parents to intervene and have the public school overtaken by an outside source if the school doesn’t meet the state standards. Many states have fought hard to prevent this type of law from entering their state. Obviously, it is in the teachers unions best interest to not have this law in their state. But is this disallowance of this type of law harmful to students performance? This law would threaten the teachers job security, so it’s easy to ascertain why they do not support this law. This leaves the human resources department, who may want the law, stuck in the middle and without an avenue to exercise their expertise. Human resources is limited with their ability to but polices in place because it has to abide by the laws of the teachers unions.
In a private enterprise the public school system would have been closed for business if year after year that private enterprise didn’t produce positive results. More importantly, individual performance of each employee would have a way of being measured. This would allow

TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

companies and the human resource department the opportunity to fire those employees who were not performing to standards, offer reskilling services to those on the margin, and reward those employees who were excelling. Job retention would be based on performance and not on seniority. Also, students need to have a choice, whether it be charter school, private, online, etc. School choice would provide students the chance at the best education possible. It has been proven that school choice has an immediate and measurable, positive impact on failing inner city schools (Shokraii, N. H.1997).
In the public school system there is no way of evaluating whether a teacher is meeting school expectations or even state and federal standards Often times, even if a teacher is known to be underperforming in preparing the child for promotion to the next grade level, this teacher is in no way reprimanded or forced to be held responsible. In addition, there are measures in place within the public school system to refrain from holding a child back to repeat a current grade year, often-times even when the parent is pleading for such action. The refusal to hold a student back to repeat a year can have a detrimental on that student succeeding in the future. One measuring tool used is the heavy reliance on standardizing testing as a way to measure school efficiency. Teachers spend a valuable amount of time preparing students to succeed on these state tests in lieu of grade specific or real world applicable course material.
Another significant reason this research question is important is due to the technological advancements that continue to take place at a rapid pace. Online education is now a viable, sometimes advanced alternative to the tradition brook and martar public school set-up. Most states offer at least one online public school free of charge if the student does not attend their
TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

local public school. What are the determining reasons for the states that still do not offer the online school as a public school option? Are the teachers unions opposed to the online? Are the students attending online public schools succeeding, doing the same, or worse off than their public school peers attending traditional school? Do they score above or below their peers on the SAT’s?
SUMMARY
One major concern with the teachers unions is the power they have with their collective bargaining agreement and because 36 states do allow collective bargaining this is one area of major concern. Terry M. Moe, a professor from Stanford University said “Collective bargaining would not exist except for the power of the teachers unions, and the core interests they pursue in negotiations are rooted in their own survival and well-being as organizations not in student achievement.” Those who oppose teachers unions believe that rules of the collective bargaining prevent schools from providing and meeting the needs of the students. In turn, this leads to increasing the cost of education without getting any increase in efficient, successful education (Eberts, 2007, p. 176). It’s bothersome that teachers unions fund lobbying campaigns that help pay for media campaigns and openly supports political parties and committees Eberts, 2007, p. 180.) The rules put in place through the collective bargaining include everything from how a teacher can discipline a student, to the hours a teacher can teach. The list is very extensive and extremely detailed. It ultimately puts the students and human resources, which would be the principal, at the mercy of the teachers unions. Principals, who are act as managers, are constricted by the collective bargaining agreement and cannot implement policies that they feel
TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

would help their specific school operate more efficiently. This then has a negative impact on student’s performance because administrators are not allowed to use any discretion. Principals do not have the authority to terminate underperforming teachers. There are has been much research on the harm of the collective bargaining with respect to teachers unions. The outcome is that in districts that have powerful teachers unions these same districts then have administrations with the least amount of flexibility (Strunk, K. O., & Grissom, J. A. (2010). The inner cities and those schools that serve the poorest, underserved, children are often the areas with strongest teachers unions and at the same time have students who have the lowest student performance. There was a proposal by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2005 in which he reached out the United Federation of Teachers, the teachers unions representing teachers in New York. The Mayor’s proposal offered the teachers a raise if they would spend an additional 150 minutes a week providing extra help to the students with the lowest performance. These were the students who were desperately in need of help. The teachers received the raise yet the plan was never implemented. The head of the teachers unions proudly spoke that he prevented any types of teachers’ evaluations to be put in place. While giving a press conference the mayor never gave a true explanation as to why the plan was never implemented and brushed it off as if it was of no major concern. (Klein, J. 2014).
Besides the collective bargaining power of teachers unions, another area of major concern is the fact the unions are under constant attack for their unwillingness to waiver on the topic of protecting teachers with the most seniority. This has led to the creations of organizations such as Teach for America and The New Teacher Project. They are both non-profit

TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

organizations, whose goal it is to bring in renewed, young teachers, into the poorer communities in an effort to increase students’ performance. There is also a trend whereby charter schools, who are not affiliated with any teachers unions, are aggressively recruiting reputable college graduates and persuading them into the teaching profession (Toch, T. 2010, pg. 2).
Oftentimes, the issues teachers unions are fighting for and to protect, align with the very things that would also foster students’ performance. Smaller class sizes is one extremely important concern teachers unions are always fighting for. However, it could be easily argues that reason teachers fight for smaller class sizes because that ensures that school districts will need more teachers. Administrators should be the ones allowed to make all the decisions on what class sizes are appropriate and because of the teachers unions they are able to implement their own policies (Freeman and Medoff 1984).
For a very long time it was always the conservatives who were the loudest in voicing their opposition to the teachers unions. The trend now is that more and more liberal groups are also tiring of the teachers unions stronghold and beginning to seek an alternative path. President Obama, a proud liberal, called for the Department of Education to put programs in place that tie a teachers performance to that of their students. The teachers unions exert so much power through their collective bargaining all without any observed or verifiable statistics to prove that the unions have any type of positive affect on student performance. In many states there is starting to be a lot of pushback from the states as they struggle with marinating with the never-ending demands of the teachers unions. These constant meetings and negotiations between

TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

teachers and administrators are costly and use up valuable resources that could be redirected to the students (Lindy, B. A. pg. 4-5 2011).
Several charter schools throughout the country have been proven highly effective. One program in particular is the Houston YES Prep Public Schools. This group consists of ten public charter schools who serve the poorest communities. The goal of this program is to not let one child fall behind. The teachers are available for extra help and any student who may begin to fall behind gets additional teacher support. The success rate of this program is unprecedented as almost 100% of the students will attend higher education (Grace Rubenstein 2014).
Despite all the negatives of teachers unions and their unwillingness to be flexible or to put the students’ best interests first, there are some teachers unions that seek that find balance between protecting teachers and providing students with the best possible education. In New Haven, the teachers union has sought out different ways to work with administrators in attempt to improve their public school system. The most significant part of this partnership is the two sides working out a compromise that would allow for a teacher evaluation system. Lack of teacher evaluation is always the biggest complaint about the teachers unions. New Haven’s willingness to adapt shows their concern in helping students. It also shows their willingness to provide services to the underperforming teachers. The two sides also worked hard to strike a deal that deal didn’t put an over emphasis on the standardized testing and to instead use many different types of measuring assessments (Cicarella, D. 2014). This type of union proves that

TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

collaboration can work if the teachers are willing to put the students’ best interests at the forefront.
Another example of a teachers union collaborating with administrators is the ABC Unified School District. They serve a student population that is extremely poor and has a high percentage of English language students. So additional resources need to be provided to help these students learn English. Teachers were provided with professional training classes to help them better understand and learn how to educate these underserved students who had poor student performance. The aftermath resulted in both increased teacher and students’ performance. This would not have been possible if both sides, the union and administrators didn’t collaborate to find a solution to the problem. The greatest agreement made between the two sides is the head of the teachers unions giving principals in this district the authority to fire teachers who were not performing. As a measured result, the students have been performing 7% above the state standard despite being in one of the poorest school districts (Rubinstein, S. A., McCarthy, J. E., & Center for American, P. 2011).
Chicago, a city well known for underperforming students and the Chicago Teachers Union reached a collaboration agreement. This significant signing of this new agreement allows principals to fire new teachers, those with less than five years experience, for any reason. In addition, the teacher wouldn’t be afforded a hearing process, saving the school system large amounts of money. At the same time this puts administrators back in a position where they can exercise their management skills. As a side effect, frequent teacher absenteeism was reduced by 25% (Jacob, B. A. pg. 7 2013). This is another example of how allowing administrators to use
TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

their skills can begin the process of improving our failing school system. Student performance is impacted when their teacher is frequently absent.

INCONSISTENCIES AND GAPS IN RESEARCH
Public schools place too much importance and focus on standardized testing as the benchmark for students performance. As states focus on teaching students how to perform on these standardizing tests, they lose sight of the big picture, which is really how well prepared these students are in comparison to rest of the world. This translates to how prepared the students will be for SAT’s and higher education. This then leads to the long time outlook of well prepared and skilled the students will be in comparison to their counterparts from other countries in the workplace. Some states offer school vouchers, tax-credits, and school choice, and some don’t. Schools should be allowed to operate as a free marketplace and this would then lead to the type of reform that would produce measurable results in increased student performance. In states that allow voucher to be used at private schools, the public school counterpart has increased it efficiency. This is a result of the public schools knowing they have to offer an equal education as those of the private schools because they are now competing for the students (Hoxby, 1998). The teachers unions role has become too powerful. It’s hard to find statistical data on the impact teachers unions have on Congress, and elected officials. Large teachers unions have the potential to influence lawmakers voting on programs such as school vouchers. Given that is primarily the Republicans who believe in voucher programs, those Republicans are more likely to vote against
TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

the voucher system if the Republican resides in a state with a strong teachers union (Kenny, L. W. 2010). Teachers unions should have no power of influence on lawmakers. Other, more realistic methods of evaluating our students, in comparison to those from other countries exist. Yet the United States seems to still only rely and place importance on their own testing as measuring student success. This hurts our students because they will eventually be competing in the global workplace. One such highly respectable measuring tool is a program called The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The test is administered every three years. Sixty-five countries participate in this assessment that tests students when the student has reached the age of 15. The reason the program chooses to test at age 15 is because it is a relevant age with respect to the amount of required schooling many countries require students to complete. The main areas of testing consist of science, mathematics, and reading literacy. One major difference between the standardized testing used in the United States and the testing performed by PISA is the measuring of a students ability to translate their math skills and apply them to situations in the real world. So, it better measures a students skills rather than the students ability to simply calculate mathematical formulas. The Unites States students average score in Mathematics was 481, which earned them a ranking of 27 in the world. China received the highest mathematics average with an average of 613. In the other two measured testing, reading literacy and science, China again had the highest average scores and the United States again fell in the middle of all the countries tested. An alarming factor is that the United States averages, from 2000-2012, in the three areas tested had no significant changes in any of the three TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

tested areas (Kelly, D., Nord, C. W., Jenkins, F., Chan, J. Y., Kastberg, D., Westat, I., &

National Center for Education Statistics, 2013).

Other inconsistencies include the lack of school districts to recognize and/or accept that standard school model simply has no chance of succeeding due to extenuating circumstances. The one size fits all approach is outdated. It’s hard to ascertain if the teachers unions are against any type of voucher system or school choice system because they believe it is not what is best for the students performance or if it based on not wanting to diminish any power away from the teachers unions. In Texas, parents can enroll their children can enroll in schools that are not their home school. Texas doesn’t restrict students to be bound to a school simply because that school is the closest. This allows parents to do their own research and decide upon the school they feel is best for the student (Smith, M. 2012, December 14). Many states have lottery systems where students and their families pray for the chance to gain entry into a functional school. Given the amount of money spent on the public school system it is sad and unacceptable that this is the condition our public school are in.
Another form of alternative school options that appears to growing with rapid enrollment is the option for students to attend an online public K-12 school. Florida began this option over ten years ago, with the online school known as Florida Virtual Academy. It is run by the state of Florida and is the largest online public school in the country. It is also considered amongst the top online public schools. Because it is state run it avoided any of the angry teachers unions or those whose oppose a voucher or school choice program Tucker, B. (2009). It should also be noted that Florida’s teachers union is one of the weakest in the country. Almost 40 states offer some form of online public schools and the states who do not are the ones with some of the strongest teachers unions, such as Maryland and Hawaii. However, only Florida’s Virtual Academy has any real respect in the higher education system. The teacher unions claim that students who leave the traditional school system to enter the online public schools quickly fall behind. Yet, this is in conflict with a state such as Florida that has put forth a great online education program. Students’ utilizing the Florida Virtual Academy were more motivated and self-disciplined. They also grasped Algebra concepts better than their peers attending traditional school (Cavanaugh, Gillan, Bosnick, Hess and Scott2005). Some of the states that offer online public schools have been found to hire unqualified teachers. So these can leave many to question whether the states that have decided to provide online public schools have done so in an attempt to cut corners and save costs, rather than adequately prepare students for higher education. There is a real lack of peer reviewed, scholarly research on the online public school option. Any research that can be found is basically just comparing the students who attend online public school to their peers in the traditional classroom. Only recently has an effort begun to take place that evaluates the design platform of the online public school. This includes how schools can best deliver the material to make the online schools effective as possible ( Barbour, Michael 2012). Much of the focus of school reform is primarily on inner city schools and how to help improve student performance in the urban areas. A topic not often discussed is the lack of advanced placement classes that are not available to students who reside in rural areas. These students are stuck with whatever classes their school provides. With admission to top colleges becoming harder and harder, this sector of students is left without any recourse. Again, this is

TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

another area that can be addressed by virtual school offerings (Sherfinski, David 2014). These students who are academically underserved and another reason why students in the United States cannot or not adequately prepared to compete with other students on a global level. The district a student resides in has too great of an ability to determine the caliber of education they can receive. Another issue that lacks research and statistics the dropout rate of high school students. It is assumed that these students are student who were failing, on unmotivated, but the answer is to the dropout rate is not as simple as that. There is no measurable way of ascertaining whether teachers unions have an effect on high school dropout rates. Nor is there any way of measuring if principals were able to manage each school that worked best for respective school if the dropout rates would still remain as high. There is not enough date on the dropouts that would allow for any conclusive results. If principals had more authority over teachers, would the dropout rate be less? If teacher seniority was not a guarantee would this effect dropout rates? Bridgeland, J. M., DiIulio, J. J., Morison, K. B., Civic, E., & Peter D. Hart Research, A. (2006). It is estimated that private high shools throughout the United States have less than a 3% dropout rate. The failure of the public school system to properly set up online public high schools has led to a surge of for-profit, fully accredited, online virtual academies. In many of the states that do offer free, online public schools, parents are choosing to pay the online private academies. These online private academies, such as Laurel Springs Online, and Georgetown Prep Online have students whose SAT’s scores are higher than those in their counties public schools. Using Laurel Springs online as an example, they take a diagnostic approach in building an individualized method that works best for each student. This includes allowing students to work at a pace that best meets the student’s needs, thus improving student performance and also allowing each student a personalized approach. Laurel Springs Online is held in such high esteem that the Department of Defense Education Activities (DoDEA) requested an extensive review of the private online school to use for comparison against the programs already being offered by the DoDEA. In the DoDEA review it stated “Laurel Springs is an accredited private school held in high regard by some of the nation's renowned educators” (Jhung, Seung K.; Mosley, Michael 2000). The fact that the Federal Government would want a full scale review, research, and assessment performed on an online school contradicts every concern the teachers unions have regarding online public schools.

FURTHER RESEARCH NEEDEED
There has always been great debate concerning teachers unions. Most every organization or plan implemented has the goal of taking the power away from the teachers unions. It is therefore very fascinating that the countries with the highest level of student performance, those countries who rank top 10 in the top in the world, also possess the most powerful teachers unions. This needs further research because obviously the teachers unions in these countries are directly linked to highest student performance in the world. What are these unions attitudes and actions and how do they translate in such great results represented by students performance? Are they placing the emphasis on the students needs above the needs of their own? America’s teachers unions need to be compared amongst those countries whose students performance in the top 10. Then changes can be made to model the unions who clearly have gotten it right (Tucker, M. 2012).
TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Another area that the needs much more research is how a school or any teachers union can be responsible for and combat the problems faced by the inner city students. Schools cannot be responsible for poverty stricken students who most often times lack any family support. Martin L. Maehr, a professor at The University of Michigan, said it best when he said “Inner-city schools, will not be well served by the imposition of standards unless and until attention is paid to solving the social, economic, health, and related problems that are endemic in the communities and families where the children live.” This quote encompasses the epidemic that is occurring throughout the United States and until these issues are address how can anyone possibly expect these students to perform well. Also, how can the failing scores be placed on the schools or the teachers unions?
Lastly, the online public school option needs to be extensively researched. Almost all the research on online public schools only evaluates how the students perform as compared to their peers. Research conducted on the Florida Virtual Academy was very adamant that the design method of the online education, in addition to reliable teacher participation and support were of the most significance Sharon Johnston & Michael K. Barbour (2013). In addition, the private online high schools are producing students who are accepted at some of the most prestigious universities in the country. They also score well above the average on their SAT scores. The states who do not have an online public school option provide no reason for their lack to do so.

TEACHERS UNIIOUNS EFFECT ON HUMAN RESOURCES AND HOW IT IMPACTS STUDENT PERFORMANCE

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